A child picks up a crayon and marks a colorful line across a piece of paper. It’s one of most natural human experiences: Tactile, haphazard, and raw. But in making the transition to digital, much of that simplicity disappears. Cold glass replaces silky paper, and suddenly you get toolbars and buttons and files. Pencil is a Bluetooth stylus that tries to help you forget you’re working on an iPad. The pencil comes in two versions: The $49.95 Graphite, and the $59.95 Walnut, encased in what looks and feels like natural wood. The Walnut version also includes a magnetic snap that allow you to stick it to the iPad’s smart cover. That’s the model we’ll be reviewing and giving away.

Introducing the Pencil

The Pencil is a very specific stylus: Not only is it meant just for one device (the iPad), but it actually works best with one particular application: PaperIntroducing Paper, A Simply Beautiful Sketchbook App [iPad]Introducing Paper, A Simply Beautiful Sketchbook App [iPad]Paper by Studio Fifty Three (iTunes link), which is admittedly a rather un-Googleable name for an app, is the ultimate in distraction-free simplified idea sketching. Your options are ridiculously limited - but that's part of...Read More, by FiftyThree. This is one of the most celebrated drawing apps for the iPad. The app itself is free, but many of its more advanced features have to be unlocked using in-app purchase, or by purchasing the Pencil. As soon as you pair the Pencil with Paper, the full suite of drawing tools become available.

Form and Feel

The pencil comes packed in a simple cylinder bearing the FiftyThree logo. Within the cylinder you’ll find a molded piece of cardboard holding the Pencil itself, as well as an extra tip and an extra eraser – so hang onto that box even after pulling the Pencil out. The Pencil doesn’t try to be a precision tool. It goes for an organic aesthetic: For one thing, the tip is wide and large, and looks a little bit like a carpenter’s pencil tip. On the other end of the Pencil, you’ll find an eraser, that you can use just like on a regular pencil: Simply flip it and you can erase whatever you drew. The Pencil doesn’t have any charging ports, so as not to compromise its form. Instead, to charge it, you simply pull on the tip and its innards slide out of the wooden casing. You find yourself holding a compact bundle of electronics with a USB plug on its far end. Simply plug it into any USB port, and it’ll charge up. The uncompromising natural look means the Pencil doesn’t have an LED or any other charge state indicator. However, after pairing the Pencil with Paper, you can look up the Pencil’s remaining battery level within the app. Even with the battery dead, you can still use it as a regular, passive stylus. With sparse use, I found that it held its charge just fine for over a week.

Using The Pencil

Pairing the Pencil with your iPad and Paper couldn’t be simpler: Simply press the tip of the Pencil against the pairing button inside Paper, wait for a brief moment, and you’re done. No menus to fiddle with, and there isn’t even an on/off switch on the Pencil itself. It literally is just one step. Because of this pairing, Paper knows when the Pencil is in use. For one thing, all of the custom tools become available even if you didn’t buy them via in-app purchase. But more important, when drawing with the Pencil, you can use your fingers to smear paint around: Paper knows when you’re touching the screen with your fingers, and when you’re touching it using the Pencil. So you can draw a little with the Pencil, smear it around with your fingers, add a dab of paint with the Pencil, smear some more, and so on. This works well for adding highlights and shading, although the smearing sometimes feels too heavy-handed and there’s no way to control it. Another key feature is palm rejection: With the Pencil in use, you no longer have to be careful not to rest your hand on the screen as you’re writing or drawing. You don’t have to worry about making any inadvertent markings on the canvas with your hand: It just works. The Pencil wasn’t meant for accurate engineering drawings. What you get is a way to create art that feels like it could have been made using traditional media. If you’re going for precision here, you’re doing it wrong. Of course, you can also use the Pencil just as a regular stylus, in any other app such as the browser, to scroll around, switch tabs, and so on. It doesn’t have to be charged to work that way. It worked very well on a Nexus 5, as well, effortlessly gliding on the screen.

A Great Stylus, If You’ll Use It

At nearly $60 for this model of the Pencil, this is not an impulse purchase. It is a very cool stylus: It delivers on its promise, and has style to spare. It feels like it was meant for creating art. If you are already using Paper and are serious about using the iPad to give your thoughts visual form, the Pencil is a good way to do so.

Our verdict of the FiftyThree Pencil:MakeUseOf recommends: Buy It.810

The Winner

Congratulations, Daniel Velez! You would have received an email from jackson@makeuseof.com. Please respond before April 4 to claim your prize. Enquires beyond this date will not be entertained.

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I haven't ever used one that worked as well as I wanted it too. Right now I'm using one that feels like a fat crayon that a toddler would use and it's only redeeming quality is that it's to big to lose.

Best stylus i ever used was one that came with a wacom tablet. Awesome stuff, really smooth and precise. Although that wasn't my tablet. And i do prefer to use my fingers for touchscreens, it's more comfortable for me.

The only capacitive stylus I've ever used was one of those off-the-shelf types that aren't necessarily branded. I discovered then that those things are only good for special/specialized cases (e.g. drawing). The finger always works better and faster when it comes to regular device usage

My favorite stylus is the Adonit Jot Pro, but any (even the cheapest ones) will do, once they've been modded. I prefer taking a cheap stylus with a mushy (hollow) tip, and injecting it with Shoe Goo, an adhesive hardening gel. While it hardens over several hours, I will tap it on a table so that it forms a slightly flat 'facet' on one side. Once it's hardened, I can write and draw with the flat side down, and it works fairly well.